Be the change and heal the world
Amanda Gorman is a 23 years old National Youth Poet Laureate of United States. She recited her poem, ‘The Hill We Climb’ to the world, on Joe Biden’s investiture ceremony. Her compelling performance propelled us. Each line, in-fact every word of her creation is reverberating. It connects all of us. The more we read or listen to this opus, the more we go on building a relationship with it.
A. Gorman reminds me of Michael Jackson, who has written and created songs on various social and environmental issues. Through his song, ‘Make a little space.. Make a better place.. Heal the world.. Make it a better place.. For you and for me, and the entire human race..’, Jackson is requesting us to be understanding and compassionate to our fellow beings. Amanda’s lines… ‘We lay down our arms, so we can reach out our arms to one another..’ are emanating the same idea of being kind and affectionate to each other. This young literary star’s composition is no less than an eye opener once again. I could relate one more song of Michael Jackson from his 1995 album ‘History’, with this classic work of Amanda. She has written, ‘…victory won’t lie in the blade, but in all the bridges we’ve made. That is the promise to glade, the hill we climb, if only we dare.’ Jackson is also trying to wake us up, through his ‘Earth’ song. This song is about the dreadful conditions, that mankind has caused, from war to the killing of animals and harming the earth. Restoring the lost glory is the main motto of these two wizards in their respective works.
The most important message behind Gorman’s creation, ‘The hill we climb’ is an optimistic approach. This masterpiece reflects on the inter-relationships of growth with grief, hope with hurt, making attempts after getting exhausted, and integration with triumph. All these aspects gleam with the light of change, love and mercy. It is about ‘change’, a change for betterment. Gorman wants to tell each one of us, to bring that positive change within us for ourselves, for each other and for our countries. Michael Jackson wanted to convey a similar message through his 1988 song ‘Man in the mirror’. The song is about making a change and realizing that it has to start with you. The song goes like this.. ‘That’s why I want you to know, I’m starting with the man in the mirror, I’m asking him to change his ways, And no message could have been any clearer, If you want to make the world a better place..’.
Amanda Gorman and Michael Jackson are two such leading lights, who have tried to hand over the baton of sustainable development and overall progress to all the fellow beings. They want us to understand our responsibilities and learn lessons from the past. Especially, Amanda is impelling us to be courageous enough to climb the hill and be a source of light for the entire human race in our own little ways.
